Ukraine

The events of February 2014 need to be seen against the whole sad history of Ukraine. This vast fertile country on the north shore of the Black Sea, with no geographic features to defend itself against centuries of assaults from Asia, Cossacks, Poles, and both Imperial and Soviet Russians. These all in turn sought to impose their political and economic structures by ruthless violence. People over the centuries were persecuted, expelled, and massacred. Nevertheless 150 years ago a Ukrainian consciousness, a distinct culture and a language differing from Russian emerged but at the same time industry rapidly expanded, needing a Russian workforce. The privileges and corruption of successive ruling elites corroded the whole of society. Flag independence in 1991 aroused questions of national identity. Post Soviet Russia returned to the view of a historic right to intervene as in the days of Peter and Catherine the Great, Lenin and Stalin; in a territory seen as "the near abroad" by President Putin.